Selective eater and family meals

[norfolkdumpling]

I need MN vast bank of knowledge to get me through the upcoming summer holidays without going nuts.

Here's my situation. DD1 is 6 years old. He started becoming fussy about food around 2 years old (this was before I joined MN and could search the messages and find out that this is pretty much par for the course). So in the intervening years DP and I have made all the classic mistakes with a picky eater.

Currently he will only eat the following:
sausages, smoked ham, roast pork, steak and roast beef, chicken, crisps, chips and roast potatoes, bread (all kinds as long as there are no seeds), oatcakes, pastry, butter, margarine, Philadelphia (and cheddar as long as it's melted), Yorkshire pudding, white fish in breadcrumbs not batter, cheese and tomato pizza, baked beans, boiled eggs, tinned cream of tomato soup, apple sauce, apples, all types of cakes, sweets and chocolate.

For the last two years we have paid for him to have school dinners mainly because we thought that he might at least try peas etc if he saw that other kids his age have no fear of them. I do keep putting new things (for him) on his plate at weekends but he is so stubborn he would rather go to bed hungry than even taste them.

My query is how can I create exciting family meals over the summer holiday that include at least one thing from the list above (so that he doesn't have a tantrum at the table)? Last summer we nearly died from stodge overload and we really missed the pasta, rice, cous cous etc that we eat in term time when he's not here for lunch.

My ds(3) is the opposite in that it is very difficult to get him to eat anything that isn't pasta with pesto on. Olives are his absolute favourite but only a very occasional treat as I think they are still too salty for him really.

To some extent I have given in and give him pasta - he will eat rice occasionally so will also give him that but potatoes are out. However I have found that I can freeze individual portions of pasta that take a minute or two to warm up in the microwave, so I cook a normal meal for dh and myself, try to give some to ds sometimes - but there is always the pasta there so that I know he will eat something. I also stick vitamin drops in his milk - maybe your ds is a bit old for nighttime milk but maybe he could have the little vitamin jelly babies or treats they have now so you know he is getting vitamins etc.

So what I am trying to say is, you have the meals that you want to and try to get ds to have the same but see if there is anythign that you can do that you can have in the freezer as a standby. Or make double portions of what he will eat one day so there is enough left for the next day so you don't have lots of extra work.

Could you also introduce some sort of family menu planning so that you all (do you have other dc?) chose a meal for different nights - and then tie in with a reward chart so that you only get to chose another meal that week if you eat enough of what everyone else chose - ie if he wants to chose a meal, then he needs to eat other people's choices in order to make sure he gets to make his choice... does that make sense - sorry, up lots last night so bit ditzy [sleep deprived emoticon!].

good luck...